It took a while to calm down, and when I did, I could still feel the joy and happiness coursing through my body.
It was sowhat subconscious, but it seed like my resentnt, so to speak, towards the moon had grown more than I had realized; after all, just a simple sight of a shattered moon was enough to make laugh hysterically.
Funny... This wasn't even Terraria's moon; I knew that, but it didn't matter to at that mont...
"Thank you..." I thanked the silver-eyed girl, a sincere gratitude. I don't think even she knows how much that sight cheered up... Relieved ...
I would eventually see the moon myself in this month I'd spend in Remnant, but knowing that she cared enough was already enough for ...
Ruby, who had been silent until then, smiled cheerfully.
"It was nothing." She smiled carelessly.
I was the first to look away, glancing one last ti at the night sky before turning to look at the distant forest.
"It's late, don't you have early classes tomorrow?" The stream clock read almost midnight. I knew it was the weekend, but whether it was Saturday or Sunday, I wasn't sure.
"We do, but it won't be the first ti we've stayed up late." Yang shrugged, a visible curiosity shining in her athyst-colored eyes. "Want to talk about it?" She asked.
"About what?..." It was obvious. "...The moon, my reaction?" She nodded. I understood her curiosity, from everyone, including (CHAT).
It wasn't a secret at this point that I harbored so sort of resentnt towards the moon; to be fair, it was more like an open secret—I didn't comnt on it, but anyone observant enough could notice.
The why was another story; none of them knew for sure, and if it were up to , it would remain that way for as long as possible.
"It's nothing, just got happier than I expected." I changed the subject. "It was a surprise too, I can say it's the first ti I've seen a shattered moon in real life." I had seen movies or ani with a broken moon, even two or more moons, but seeing it in reality was another story.
"For us too." Weiss spoke. "I an, seeing a whole moon. For Remnant, the moon has always been like that, shattered, seeing one that wasn't was surprising." She explained.
The HOTD moon was the first moon I showed on the stream...
I chatted a few more minutes with the girls, Ruby leading much of the conversation when Houtengeki was ntioned.
"Can I try lifting it?" She asked eagerly.
"No." I replied without hesitation. "Crescent Rose weighs what? Twenty kilograms?..."
"Twenty-two kilograms and three hundred and four grams." Ruby spoke between my words.
"...Well, Houtengeki weighs twenty tis more than that, you'll end up hurting yourself if you try to lift it." I didn't lose pace with the extrely specific number and continued.
I didn't want to be forced to spend part of a potion because she, or Yang, who I knew would try to lift the halberd like a bench press, strained a muscle or worse.
As much as I could feel Aura aiding in the body's basic regeneration, I didn't know how much, especially comparing my own regeneration to others', breaking an arm was at this point a mild injury like a scratch.
We continued talking until we reached their dormitory, the bunk beds still existed, I thought it had been a hallucination...
"Are you going to co in to sleep with us?~" Yang spoke provocatively.
The four, including Yang, blushed at the double entendre in the sentence, so more than others.
"You know I'm still streaming, right?" I asked looking at her. The way she blushed even more when she seed to rember this fact made laugh.
"I'll pass, still have so things to do." Ozpin had asked to talk to him earlier. I also had to go talk to Jas about Tyrian. "Before I forget... Here, for when I turn off the stream." I handed the Radio Thing to Ruby.
I'll leave Lucy with her, the two had gotten along well.
"Yay! We have the radio, Lucy!" Ruby showed the Radio Thing to the axe.
("We have the radio, friend Ruby!") The axe didn't waste ti responding.
"Should I be worried?" Yang asked with her cheeks still slightly red.
"Turn off the radio if Ruby doesn't want to go to sleep." I spoke calmly.
"That's not very reassuring..." Blake murmured. She had the best hearing, right?... Four ears and all... That was still kind of confusing to be honest.
I shook my head amusedly.
"Just don't throw it against the wall or sothing, and it should be fine." The durability of the Radio Thing was high, but it was better not to risk it.
After curiously receiving four goodnight hugs instead of just one, which surprised a bit, the girls went into their dormitory.
"Goodnight..." I said one last ti, a murmur, before continuing to walk.
I walked through the dark corridors of the school for a few minutes, listening to whispers in the distance, students' conversations, the sound of the wind drifting in the distance...
I walked until I returned to Beacon's rooftop, going to the edge to sit, watching the forest in the distance and the moon above, the night sky.
I must have been there for a few minutes, mostly in silence, just speaking a few words here and there with (CHAT), which included team RWBY that hadn't gone to sleep yet to have company.
After so ti, the green dot I had been following on the minimap for a while approached, and the door leading to the rooftop opened behind .
"You could've sent a ssage." Ozpin spoke as he walked, his steps echoing in the night's silence, along with the slight noise his cane made as it hit the ground.
"I'm pretty sure I did." I said without turning.
"Looking at a random cara and then pointing upwards isn't exactly a ssage." He said with a sigh, but I could hear the amusent in his voice.
"You still found , didn't you?" I asked.
"Not because of the cara, but because Miss Winter was watching the stream and alerted us of your actions." He replied, sitting beside on the rooftop.
"You still found , didn't you?" I repeated the words before laughing for a mont. My mood was good, too bad I felt like it wouldn't last long...
"Touche." He laughed too and fell silent.
We must have stayed like that for a few minutes, just looking at the night sky and the forest in the distance, in silence, before Ozpin resud the conversation.
"You truly are from another world, aren't you?" He asked, already knowing the answer.
"I am..." My voice ca out in a low tone. In every world, I would be soone from another world... "Have you watched so old videos from the stream?" I also already knew the answer to that question.
"Yes. It was enlightening in many ways." Ozpin spoke, slowly moving the cane that was in his lap with his fingers. "To say the least, a surprise, even for ..." He looked up, not directly at the moon, but at the stars dotting the sky. "Thank you..."
"For what?" I asked sowhat confused, but having an idea of why he was thanking .
"A confirmation of an old question of mine..." As I thought...
"If we are alone?" I don't think there's a human being who hasn't thought about that at least once in their life. "You, in this case." I wasn't from Remnant.
"Yes..." He nodded. "As I said, it was quite a surprise."
"I imagine so. How was everyone's reaction?" I asked after a mont. Damn, I should've stayed there to watch the reaction, at least Qrow's, it must have been funny.
"Various degrees of shock, denial, and finally, acceptance." He chuckled. "Qrow was the first to leave the room, saying he needed a drink." Ozpin explained. "The second to leave after him was Jas, he gave the excuse that he was going to take Tyrian back to his cell, but I'm sure it was to sort out his own thoughts." He paused before continuing.
"Miss Winter followed Jas, she seed the most shocked of all, I can't bla her, especially since she said she was talking to her (CHAT)." He shook his head with a amused smile.
"(CHAT)'s people are friendly, don't worry." I replied with a smile. A group of diverse and welcoming crazies, in a way.
I had seen her ssages, replied to so, but mostly left it for (CHAT) to have fun replying. Funny how she beca a mber of the stream in just a few minutes without hesitation, it seems Weiss's family was really rich.
"I'll take your word for it." He nodded without doubt. "Glynda was the last to leave, and the most skeptical too, but when she was finally convinced, she took so headache dicine and went to bed, but I wouldn't be surprised if I find one or two empty wine bottles in her office trash tomorrow."
They were taking everything quite calmly, that was good.
"And you?" I asked. He hadn't said anything about his own reaction.
"I've seen many things in my life, as surprising as your situation may be, it's not sothing that will shake easily." Was his response, and I believed him, he seed calm... His eyes were old, they seed to have seen a lot...
I was slightly tempted to say that this world was a TV show in my original world to see what his reaction would be, but I restrained myself, too many surprises in a single day couldn't be too good for the heart, and Ozpin seed to be of a certain age already.
"Tell , Ozpin, what did you want to talk to about?" I asked. I don't think he ca here just to make small talk.
"Many things... But I don't think it's the right ti for that conversation, as much as I've said I wasn't shaken, my thoughts are full at the mont," he explained, looking up.
"In fact, I ca here not only because you were here, but because I have an old habit of looking at the stars when I want to organize my mind, sothing ancient, which I've carried since childhood..." The way his voice sounded as if it had been a long ti ago than it seed.
"I can't say I've acquired that sa habit over the years, but I can understand." I've never been one to look at the night much, but I liked to be alone whenever I had a lot on my mind, so I could understand.
Minutes passed in silence as the moon rose higher in the sky, before I finally decided to end the stream, it was already late.
"Well, that's it for today, a busy day, isn't it?" I said to the cara. More than busy, tumultuous was the right word. "Go to sleep, regular programming tomorrow."
I let (CHAT) send their goodnight emotes before waving and turning off the stream.
"Curious, I thought you'd leave the stream on twenty-four hours, at least on normal days," Ozpin asked beside , getting up when I did.
"I know my viewers, I know well that many would try to stay awake with , no matter how many days the stream lasts, and that's not good for them." Whether I liked it or not, I influenced all my viewers.
Just as I had policed my swearing, reducing it, out loud at least, I knew that sleep deprivation would eventually ss with the minds and bodies of many people, even if mine didn't.
I could stay awake for weeks at this point, months probably, my body didn't tire and my mind grew stronger every day, but I knew others didn't have that disposition.
"Responsible of you, even if it's not your responsibility," Ozpin said with a certain respect in his voice.
"There are crazies in every world and sohow they seem to be drawn to the stream." Peculiarities were not lacking in (CHAT), especially in (CHAT - FATES). "Many of them have beco my friends, I don't want them to sleep badly because of if I can avoid it," I said amused.
So I knew would try to stay awake with , for one reason or another, were Ruby, Stark, Percy, Harry, Ainz, even though the latter didn't need to sleep and would watch out of curiosity and boredom.
"Speaking of crazies, Jas told that Tyrian woke up so ti ago, but they couldn't get anything out of him," Ozpin inford . "Thought you'd like to know."
"I figured it would be like that." Tyrian was the perfect mold of a psychopath, if he didn't want to talk, he wouldn't, even if they tortured him...
"Take to him, I think I can make him talk," I comnted, starting to walk. Tyrian would talk, even if his body didn't want to talk...
"Any magic of yours?" Ozpin asked, guiding the way. Qrow must have inford him of our brief conversation.
"Sothing like that, still in testing... But it should work," I replied.
... His spirit would speak...
It took a few minutes to reach the cell where Tyrian was, the Bull-Head trip to the control ship was smooth, the landing too.
"You'll be mine." I tapped the side of the snow when we landed, making Ozpin chuckle amusedly.
We followed the soldier who guided us into the ship in silence with the sound of Ozpin and the soldier's footsteps, along with the rhythmic tapping of Ozpin's cane tip being the only sounds in the environnt.
I didn't even need to look at the minimap to know that we were being escorted by more than just this one soldier, the group in the air vents were skilled, barely making any noise, but that wasn't enough for my current senses.
We walked to a room that had a green and a red dot inside. When the soldier opened the door after a voice shouted permission from inside, I had confirmation that the dots were respectively Jas and Tyrian.
The latter didn't seem too happy to see .
"FALSE PROPHET! I WILL TEAR YOUR FLESH FOR THE GODDESS YOU INSIGNIFICANT!" He shouted and would continue to shout before Jas turned off the microphone that was on the other side of the glass he was tied to.
"False prophet?" I asked. Was it because of the Bone Helm?
"The aura that your bone mask emitted seems to have confused him," Jas rubbed his fingers on his eyes. "I'm not in the right mind to deal with a lunatic of this level..." He looked tired.
"Received so shocking information?" I didn't hide the amusent in my voice, the dry look Jas gave was all the answer I needed.
I ignored his look and turned to look at Tyrian, who had been staring at until now.
"Tell , Jas, are the six up there your n, or spies?" I asked just in case, they were yellow on the minimap, so I wasn't sure.
The noise that ca from the ceiling after my question sounded like a head hitting tal, but I could be wrong too.
Ozpin snorted at my words, while Jas sighed in an even more tired manner and looked up.
"Double training for you next month!" He shouted, before turning to . "Yes, they're my n," he replied.
"Well, just to make sure." I shrugged. They were close enough that they wouldn't be able to escape if they were spies anyway.
I didn't ask where Winter was; I could see the green dot representing her on the other side of the ship, probably in her room.
"He hasn't said anything since you called ?" Ozpin took control of the conversation and asked Jas.
"Nothing but taunts and curses. I don't think I'll ever et a living being, be it human, faunus, or animal, more disturbed in my whole life than him," Jas replied.
That might be true for him, but I felt it wouldn't be the case for , unfortunately...
"That goddess he keeps shouting about, do you guys know who she is?" I asked, tapping my finger on the glass that separated the room as if Tyrian were a goldfish in an aquarium.
Jas opened his mouth to respond before Ozpin interrupted him, speaking in his place.
"We have a suspicion of who she might be, but nothing confird," he looked at , then up, where I had pointed out Jas's six n.
I nodded, indicating that I understood. I'll ask him later, that is, if Tyrian doesn't tell himself.
"Well, I'll take our friend here for a walk then." I waved for Jas to open the door separating the room. "A magician never reveals his tricks and all that." I knew they would understand.
Jas frowned, probably considering denying, but nodded and opened the door, Ozpin didn't react, just watched from the side.
The mont the door was opened, Tyrian's mouth did the sa, but before he could probably curse my soul and threaten to tear apart, I gagged him using the VoidBag.
"Be back in a few hours." I waved, tossing the chained and struggling body over my shoulder.
If everything went right, with information and a corpse... If everything went wrong, just with a corpse...
[...]
POV: Third person.
"Are you sure this is wise?" Jas asked Ozpin after a few minutes had passed, the two now inside Jas's office.
The human at this mont was descending to the Erald Forest using a Bull-Head driven by a soldier. As for the Ace Ops who were observing earlier, they were dismissed with a wave from Jas.
"That's a vague question, about what?" Ozpin asked back. "Letting Devas take Tyrian? Or leaving Devas unsupervised?" He inquired.
"The latter," Jas grunted. "I don't have enough rcy in to stop whatever he's going to do with Tyrian, but I still think he should be watched."
All day, the human had been accompanied by soone, be it Qrow and team RWBY, or even Ozpin, but at this mont, the human was unsupervised.
"I'll send a spy drone to see what he's going to do." Jas said, grabbing a Scroll from the first drawer of his desk. As much as he believed in the human, after all the evidence, the Strear still wasn't soone to fully trust, at least for Ironwood.
"Don't do that." It wasn't advice, it was an order, Ozpin's steel voice confird it. "We saw in the videos that he has that map in his vision; he found your best n in seconds."
"The map doesn't show objects, only living beings," Jas retorted.
"Do you want to bet on that and annoy soone who almost scread that he wanted to be our ally?" Ozpin sighed. "Jas, paranoia is good, it keeps you alive, but too much paranoia will end up pushing everyone away from you, maybe even killing you." Ozpin advised, his lived years shining in that mont.
Jas hesitated before dropping the Scroll he had in his hands and slumping into the chair behind him.
"An alien, Ozpin..." Jas spoke after a few seconds of silence.
"He's human, you know that." To Ozpin, as much as the human had co from another world, universe perhaps, he wasn't sure, he was still human.
"Doesn't change the fact that he's not from Remnant... Damn, I think finding out magic was real was less surprising." Jas scratched his nose with his prosthetic arm. "An alien with magic..."
"Do you have any idea what he's going to do?" Jas asked after a while.
"No, but I don't think it'll be torture or anything like that, if that's your concern. Devas didn't seem like the type." Ozpin replied calmly. "And if it's so kind of mind-reading spell, it must be sothing lengthy, since he didn't want both of us to see the process." He reassured him.
While the headmaster and the general conversed, the human had finally landed in the Erald Forest, the Bull-Head that brought him flying away as he watched from the ground.
"I still think the na Bull-Head is kind of crap, but whatever," the human comnted to Tyrian on his right shoulder, who grunted and struggled before being thrown to the ground.
"You know, I spent the whole day thinking about what I was going to do with you," the human began, pulling a chair out of the Voidbag and sitting down on it. "Especially after unlocking my Aura and seeing that one of my racial traits took up residence there," he monologued, speaking to himself since Tyrian couldn't respond.
Tyrian took advantage of the monologue to try to escape, attempting to break the chains that bound his limbs, but to no avail.
Not only were the chains sturdy, but he was also without Aura due to the injuries his body had suffered; the little he had recovered was destroyed by Jas as standard procedure for highly dangerous prisoners.
It would be a miracle if he could even crack one of the chains around his body.
"What are you going to do then? Torture ?" Tyrian spoke as the gag in his mouth disappeared. "How cute, I even got a little scared," the faun teased, laughing.
Pain was the last thing Tyrian feared; it even pleased him, even if he was the one suffering.
"No, I don't like torture, don't worry," the human looked down at the faun on the ground and reassured him.
Tyrian didn't believe his words; he had said them himself many tis to his victims before, seeing the hope disappear from their eyes when he pulled out a tool always delighted him.
As much as to him, the human in front of him was a false prophet, soone who copied the aura of his Goddess and his Grimms, still, he was soone who exuded so much malice that it almost made him blasphe against his Goddess, soone like that couldn't be good.
Tyrian was already preparing the jokes he would tell when the human started torturing him when he noticed the shadows around them moving strangely, the sa happening with the shadow of the human that seed to sway with the moonlight, even though he was standing still.
"What?" Tyrian murmured. Was this the human's semblance?
"Tell , Tyrian, I'll give you a chance. Tell about this… Queen of the Grimms, and I'll just rip your head off," the human interrupted the faun's thoughts with his words.
Tyrian looked at him for a mont, as if thinking, 'Is he really serious?' before realizing that yes, the human was serious, and began to laugh.
"And I thought that girl with delusions of grandeur was deluded, but I see there will always be soone dumber in the world," he spat the words along with saliva in the direction of the human.
"Girl with delusions of grandeur?" the human murmured, storing that information for later before sighing and standing up. "Well, don't say I didn't give you a chance later… But I'm glad you refused…" He went to Tyrian and grabbed the chain that held him before starting to walk, dragging the faun deeper into the forest.
Although he was being dragged on rough ground without Aura to protect his body, Tyrian wasn't really being hard, since the chain itself that held him also protected him from the sharp stones and roots on the forest floor.
The human dragged the faun for a few minutes, walking slowly and without haste for what he was planning to do.
"Ruby is soone important to , you know that?" the human comnted, taking one step at a ti, looking ahead as he spoke.
"Not that it matters much at this mont, but I wanted you to know that everything that is going to happen from now on, it's because of this… Goddess of yours, as you say, gave you this mission," the human explained calmly, his voice strangely devoid of emotion, seeming to have an extra echo that made Tyrian's head ache when he listened.
It was as if the human's voice had a whisper behind it, as if it were a voice speaking about smaller voices, a symphony of murmurs and indistinguishable whispers.
A shiver ran down Tyrian's spine, followed by a strange feeling he didn't rember ever feeling before in his entire life, which deepened more and more as the shadows around seed to grow darker and closer and closer…
The sound around also began to diminish… The faint noise of the stream in the distance slowly disappeared, along with the sounds of the insects that one by one fell silent… Not even the wind rustling the leaves seed to produce a single noise…
It was as if the moonlight couldn't illuminate this part of the forest…
It was as if the sound had disappeared…
The human continued dragging the faun, who looked around not understanding what was happening…
Tyrian then realized that the only sounds were the chains being dragged on the ground, clanking against each other, and the whispers, indecipherable murmurs that seed to co from everywhere…
From within the treetops, from beneath the rocks on the ground, behind every bush, every trunk… The voices seed to echo throughout the dark Erald Forest…
After an indeterminate amount of ti for Tyrian, who was looking around for what, or who, was making these whispers, these voices, the human stopped walking.
Nothing but trees surrounded them for miles and miles; not even a soul, whether human or faun, existed within the range of the Minimap and beyond.
"I think this is far enough," the human said to himself, pulling Tyrian into the center of the clearing they were in.
The clearing was dium-sized, with only a few irregular ters in length in all directions, surrounded by trees and more trees that together ford a black curtain that seed to devour all light, darkening everything within their canopies.
Nothing but the clearing seed to be illuminated by the moonlight, and even that light seed to be slowly fading as the shadows crept out of the forest slowly...
Tyrian realized the mont he was thrown into the center of the clearing that his heart was racing, as fast as if he were in the middle of a hunt, behind his delicious prey at the behest of his Goddess... But his feelings didn't mirror those monts...
It was as if his instincts were heightened for a different reason... He could feel every single blade of grass touching his skin, hear every whisper... With each movent the human made, his eyes instinctively turned to see what he was doing, as if taking him out of his sight were more than a mistake...
What is this? Tyrian wondered. Why was his body acting like this? Was it because of the blood loss? No, he had lost more before and none of this had happened.
Because of the headache? The whispers?... Perhaps. The faun thought. Those voices... What were they?... Was this the human's Semblance?...
"No, this isn't my Semblance," the human replied, as if he were reading his thoughts. "I'm not reading your thoughts either, Tyrian... You're muttering the words..." The human explained, pausing in his words deliberately slowly.
"The voices are unpleasant, aren't they?" the human approached slowly, Tyrian watched every move, every step, every ripple of the human's muscles attentively, his heightened senses, his vision...
Tyrian widened his eyes when he realized... Everything was dark... It wasn't supposed to be dark... He was a faun, his night vision was excellent, he was supposed to see the night as if it were day!
"Are your thoughts confused?..." The human spoke in a low tone. "Forgot you could see in the dark?..." He ca even closer. "Forgot your own kind?... Madness, isn't it?..." He laughed in a low, hoarse tone, a sound that seed to intensify the whispers and voices...
"You..." Tyrian struggled to speak the word, his throat was dry, his vocal cords felt more like sandpaper than anything else...
"?..." The human took another step. When had he put on that deer mask?... "What about , Tyrian?..." Another step... No...
"Don't co any closer." His voice was ant to be a shout, a threat, but it sounded more like a weak, fragile plea, just as his prey always did when he played with them... And just as he ignored them, the human ignored him... Moving closer one step at a ti...
Tyrian jerked his head quickly when he felt a hand grip his shoulder... A dark hand... He recognized that hand, it was one of those hands the human controlled when he saved the silver-eyed girl and the blonde fool from his clutches...
When his other shoulder was gripped by another hand, Tyrian's head turned once again, making his neck ache with the speed... And then another hand appeared, this ti holding his right arm... When had the chains disappeared?...
This was the mont to rise, to fight... To flee, a small voice whispered in the back of Tyrian's head, swallowed by the endless whispers, muffled and drowned by the sea of voices echoing from all sides...
Tyrian didn't move as a fourth hand held his left arm, his body seed not to listen... He didn't even react when two more hands held his legs, pinning him to the ground...
When the seventh hand held his head in place, making him look up, at the full moon, bright and round in the sky, he tried to speak... Hindered when an eighth and final hand covered his mouth...
"You know... Do a favor..." The human's voice echoed from all sides, even though he was next to Tyrian, looking down at him. "... If what I'm about to do hurts... Scream, I won't stop, but I'll know what to improve next ti I do it..." The voice echoed, increasing the shiver Tyrian felt down his spine.
Tyrian's widened eyes glanced at the holes in the human's mask, two terror-filled eyes staring at two emotionless white spheres... Then the human stooped down, placing a hand on his face, and everything went dark...
Tyrian didn't rember screaming, but his throat ached as if he had; he didn't rember moving, but he woke up on a beach alone...
"What?..." The faun looked around. This... Was this real?
Tyrian almost instantly noticed his tail swinging behind him, a tail he had lanted for a few monts had been cut... What?
"Was all that so kind of... Hallucination?" Had he eaten sothing poisoned without realizing it? So kind of dicine Hazel had tested on him without him noticing?
"No, Tyrian, what happened wasn't a hallucination..." A childlike voice echoed behind Tyrian.
A shiver ran down Tyrian's spine again when he heard the voice; when he was about to turn to fight, he was stopped, again by the eight hands holding his body tightly.
"You would attack a child?... I should have expected as much..." The voice drew closer, the owner walking deliberately slowly to his front... Tyrian recognized him.
Though he was much younger, in a body of seven, maybe eight years, or more, Tyrian couldn't discern children's ages, the human still had the sa features... Still wore the sa deer mask...
Two white holes stared at the faun trapped by the black hands, below him, a playful smile on the human child's face.
"It took a few tries, but it seems possible..." The human murmured without removing the smile from his face. "Co, let's take a walk." The human inhabiting his child self spoke, turning around and starting to walk.
Tyrian felt the hands holding him lift him off the ground, and drag him through the air behind, following the human like eight puppies vying for their owner's attention.
Tyrian tried to struggle, to tear the hands that held him, but nothing worked...
Even when he instinctively used his tail that had been ripped off this morning, the most he managed was to make the hand covering his mouth move to grip the tail tightly, preventing it from moving.
"Don't struggle, I don't want to accidentally drop you in the sea." The childlike voice sounded again in front of him. Drop in the sea?
Tyrian stopped moving, looking around, it was then that he realized he was no longer on the beach, but rather on top of a bridge connecting the beach to sowhere else, spanning over the ocean.
"Where are we?..." Tyrian managed to say with a hoarse voice, ignoring the pain in his throat. "What the hell did you do... Where have you brought !" The faun shouted, before coughing, saliva and blood mixing every ti air was expelled from his lungs.
"Don't bleed on my bridge, it was a hell of a job to build it." The human child looked at the blood with a disgusted look before shaking his head and turning away, ignoring the faun's question.
Tyrian didn't ask any more questions, as much as he wanted to, he knew the human wouldn't answer; it would only make his throat bleed more.
The human child and the scorpion faun walked for so ti on the bridge, the forr taking short steps with his short legs, while the latter floated, dragged by black hands that swayed as if they weren't really real...
Tyrian noticed that the sea around them began to change after a while, the clear waters becoming increasingly darker, in a sickly purple hue, before turning into a thick sludge as the two approached what seed to be an island on the other side of the bridge.
The ground was purple, the earth seeming dry and wet at the sa ti, as if poisoned, rotten; the sa happened with the thick roots that seed like veins running through the ground, coming from trees so dry they seed dead, but were alive.
The whole island was like a rotten and poisoned swamp, with thorny shrubs next to small puddles as black as tar that pulsed, releasing bubbles that slled so horrible Tyrian's nose wrinkled even from a distance.
It was like a distorted version of the Grimm Lands, Tyrian realized, the environnt as malicious as it, but seemingly serving the human child in front of him as the Grimm Lands served his Goddess.
"It took so ti to separate this thing from the main island, but it was worth it... I don't think I'll ever get used to this sll..." The human child murmured, taking short steps through the swamp.
With each step the human child took, the roots on the ground intertwined, one by one, until they ford a wooden path for him to walk on smoothly, it was as if the whole place wanted to serve him with its best.
It didn't take long for the human child to stop his steps, reaching where he wanted to go, in front of what seed to be a huge lake of black mud that bubbled as if boiling, releasing bubbles that created waves in the thick liquid.
"A Grimm Pool?!" Tyrian ignored the pain and blood as he shouted. What was this doing here? How was it here?!
That question, the human child answered.
"I don't know what a Grimm Pool is, but this isn't one," the human child replied. "It's just my nightmare energy in its most... Primitive form, so to speak." Nightmare energy? What... What was that?
Tyrian received no answer to his question before being lifted even higher into the air, just above the large pool of black mud.
"Last chance, sothing you shouldn't have, speak and I'll kill you. Don't speak and you'll have a nice dive." The human child's voice echoed, the entire island rejoicing at his words.
"You... Think that scares ?" Tyrian spat the words with blood dripping into the mud below and disappearing. "I will never betray my Goddess, throw , I'll just beco a Grimm and continue serving." The madness in his voice was not like his usual madness... It was darker... Truly insane...
The human child neither smiled nor showed emotion, as if waiting for the faun's response, and murmured, more to themselves than for Tyrian to hear.
"Sins are sins... I'll accept mine... No matter what they are..." The human child's voice was serene... Calm...
Tyrian didn't have ti to speak when the hands holding him in the air opened, letting him fall into the mud lake.
Tyrian didn't have ti to react when he felt his body and perhaps sothing more burn and corrode upon falling into the mud.
Tyrian didn't have ti to struggle when dozens of hands as black as pitch erged from the mud and dragged him down.
The human child looked at the spot where the faun's body had been swallowed by the mud without showing emotion.
"Sins are sins..." He murmured.
... Not even reacting when a clearly human, or in this case, faun hand, appeared in that sa spot...
The black hand dragged itself out of the mud lake, the body to which it belonged rising slowly... Tyrian... But the human child knew it wasn't him anymore.
Both the skin and clothes of the ex-faun were an unnatural black color, like the Grimm he had killed that morning... Like the hallucinations that plagued WinterHord...
His eyes were of a ghostly white hue, like two soulless, empty voids, concealed much like his face, behind a mask crafted from bones, resembling that of the Grimms... Identical to the one the human child wore... A deer mask...
As the forr faunus and the human child locked eyes, for a mont Tyrian's eyes, his irises, glead in a sickly purple hue... His Semblance...
The human child looked at the ex-faun with a certain regret before his voice sounded throughout the island.
"Tell , Tyrian... What do you know about the Queen of the Grimm... What's her na?" The human child asked...
"Salem, my master, her na is Salem..." Tyrian didn't hesitate for even a mont.
... And like a loyal servant, Tyrian replied...
The human opened his eyes after having all the answers and information he wanted from Tyrian, 'waking up' again in the Erald Forest, with his hand above the faun's body, who had wide and empty eyes, even though his chest moved.
"Perhaps torturing him would have been more humane than this..." The human murmured.
Tyrian's mind was dead, ripped away... Even though his body wasn't, his consciousness taken and twisted by madness, ready to serve as a servant... Even part of his soul torn away... A small part, but still, a part of his soul...
Even if reincarnation existed in this world beyond Ozpin's, which Tyrian had told the human about, the next life of the faun could not truly be counted as a next life, but as a restart...
Everything that made this soul 'Tyrian' had been taken, his mories, emotions, thoughts... Even his Semblance... Tyrian, for all intents and purposes, had been forcibly purged from Remnant... Trapped in forced servitude, a punishnt for all the cris he committed...
"Sins are sins..." The human murmured one last ti... "I'll carry yours too..." It was the least he could do after everything...
The human tore off the head of Tyrian's vegetative state body with a simple swing of his halberd and stowed them both inside the VoidBag before the head even rolled, and then began walking back to Beacon...
Upon a shattered moon... The human walked... It was lucky that there were no Grimm nearby... Lucky for them...
... With dozens of red eyes in his shadow, looking in all directions, ready to defend their master if anything was foolish enough to attack.
[...]---[...]
I'll be brief here, as it's 5 in the morning and I have to wake up early... My brain is lting...
Well, I liked how this chapter turned out, the interactions between Devas and Ozpin, I think I managed to convey what I wanted to, even with Ironwood and his suspicion.
As for Tyrian... Well, nightmare energy affects the mind... Why not try to use it to pull soone else's mind, with no defense against such an attack, into your own mind?...
Devas is accompanied now... His shadow has been moving in the last few chapters... Hasn't it moved?...
Well, I'll explain why everything happened in the next chapter and how Devas did what he did, anwhile, I'll leave it at that...
As always, good night to everyone and happy reading!
PS: Chapter with nearly 7k words for you all!
PSS: I didn't miss in the description when Tyrian saw the moon...
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